Thursday, October 5, 2017

Not even the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history
surprises us.

Shocked, saddened, angry – yes, all three. But if
we’re honest we aren’t surprised anymore when a monster with a high-powered
weapon – or weapons -- kills many people he has never met.

We’ve developed a sickening ritual around mass murder.
The news comes with horrifying images and the awful audio of staccato pops and
screams. Then, inspiring stories of true heroes, the brave first responders,
and heart-rending bios of victims whose lives are tragically cut short.

We pray and hold moments of silence and candlelight
vigils. We ponder how someone could do the
unthinkable.

We’ve had more than half a century to learn the drill.
On Aug. 1, 1966, a young man dragged a footlocker with three rifles, two
pistols, a sawed-off shotgun and provisions – including Spam, canned peaches,
toilet paper and deodorant -- to the observation deck on the 30th
floor of the University of Texas Tower.

He took aim from his high perch and started shooting.
When the 96-minute rampage was over, 14 people were dead, and at least 33 others
were wounded.

A campus became a killing field. Americans were shocked,
saddened, angry – and, yes, surprised. How could this happen?

The shooter was a university student named Charles
Whitman, 25, a former Eagle Scout, ex-Marine, sharpshooter. He had killed his
mother and wife hours earlier.

Whitman, it turned out, had complained of severe
headaches and depression and had told a psychiatrist he fantasized about
killing people from the Tower.

He left a suicide note asking that his brain be
examined to “see if there is any mental disorder.”

Doctors found a malignant brain tumor the size of a
pecan but were never sure if it affected Whitman’s behavior. Experts still
don’t agree on his motive.

Motive is again the question as we desperately try to
make sense of senseless carnage, this time on the Las Vegas strip.

Stephen Paddock, 64, had no police record. A high-stakes
gambler, he checked into the Mandalay Bay resort and casino with 10 suitcases.
On Sunday night, he set up guns at two windows in his 32nd floor suite.
He rained bullets down on a country music festival, killing 58 people and
wounding nearly 500. He killed himself as police approached.

Mary Ellen O’Toole, a forensics expert at George Mason
University, believes Paddock may have studied Whitman to prepare for his
rampage. It’s possible. Paddock was 13 when
Whitman made worldwide news. So far, though,
there’s no evidence he did so.

Paddock reportedly had 23 guns and 12 “bump stocks” at
the hotel. The device makes a semiautomatic rifle act like an automatic, so instead
of having to pull the trigger time after time, he could spray bullets as if he
had a machine gun.